By Hand London’s very first collection!

Ok, so we’re trying to keep it together, but we are so damn proud and excited to share our very first collection of sewing patterns with you! But first, let us explain a little bit about it all. You may have heard us say before that we are inspired most by the real-life women around us. This is why we decided we would name and base each of the designs in our collections on stylish ladies we know and admire. We have begun by using erm, well…ourselves! So, without further ado, let us introduce the Charlotte Skirt and the Elisalex Dress:

Charlotte Skirt

A high waisted pencil skirt with peplum and hem ruffle variations. This skirt has been designed with an hourglass figure in mind, allowing a generous amount of ease at the hips.

This straight talking Dutch girl dreams of running her own business empire, believes art and culture changes lives and is a sucker for a sleazy RnB beat. A lover of short stories by American men and oversized gold earrings, the US of A generally holds a special place in her heart. However, moving to London at a young age, it is this city, and its people, which have had the most profound influence on her style and thought. A child of the 90s she spent her teens trawling markets and charity shops in search of diamante bindis, shag bands and skater trousers – as well as happily hacking up her own clothing. She’s now a little more neatly dressed though and, fittingly, her absolute favourite look ever is a high cinched in waist.

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Elisalex Dress

An elegant dress with a low scooped back, princess seamed, fully lined bodice, box pleated tulip skirt and exposed zipper at centre back. There are three sleeve variations and the bodice is designed with very little ease to enhance the waist.

Lifelong West London girl Elisalex is half Italian, an obsessive maker and proud mama to her beautiful four year old boy. She shamelessly enjoys a touch of the 50s housewife – sewing, baking and romance being just a few of her favourite things. However, don’t let that fool you, this girl left a bit of her heart in Nashville a while back and loves nothing more than dancing all night to country music or getting down to some 60s reggae. As much as she loves summer, for this pale beauty nothing beats a stormy winter evening with real wood fires and knitting at hand. A firm non believer in the concept of being overdressed, if you spot someone in a ballgown and heels workin’ it on the dancefloor of an East London dive bar – well, it’s probably our girl.

Our very first collection of sewing patterns – the Charlotte skirt & the Elisalex dress – will be available to buy at the end of October 2012! For up-to-date information, keep up with us here, on Twitter @byhandlondon or like our Facebook page By Hand London.

Thank you Joanne!! We are SO excited! We’ll be producing good ole fashioned paper patterns for the main collections, some simple free downloadables soon and something else we’re keeping quiet about for now… 😉

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! So loverly! Elisalex may remember my hyperventilations for her ruffled pencil skirt about 6 months ago so seeing it here makes me VERRRRRRYYYYY happy (I love the peplum variation)! And the dress! So many possibilities!!! Well done girls – what a fabulous start! (Sounds of hands clapping and cries of “Bravo“)

These are both great! I was looking for a pattern for a peplum skirt the other day and couldn’t find anything I liked, so can’t wait for this one to come out. The dress is beautiful as well – I love the retro tulip skirt shape. I’m glad you’ll be offering paper patterns too. x

Ladies, all of you, thank you thank you THANK YOU for such lovely comments!!! We are obviously excited to smitherines but this is made all the more thrilling knowing that you guys are feeling it too! We are OVERWHELMED by all the love.

WOW they look awesome!! Very good job!! I’ll definitely need the gold skirt! Charlotte, are you coming over in october to Holland? Maybe some space left in your handluggage…. 🙂 Hope to see more very soon!

I’m loving that skirt with the different flounce options! Wow, this makes me want to create my own pattern line. Your designs are really inspiring, and it’s great to see more indy pattern companies available to modern stitchers.